Fish Creek trail run

That got interesting. I ran up the hill of death, and along the south side of Fish Creek park. Although I thought I knew where that path went, it turns out not to be true. The pavement stopped, and I ended up skipping and dancing down a damp, pine needle coated hill interrupted by wet tree roots. I was being careful, that's for sure, since I had this vision of having to call Linda if I fell. Not that she could have done much, that part of the park is a long way from a road.

Evening is a nice time for a run, though it started getting a bit chilly just as I was wrapping it up. I was originally thinking of running around Woodbine, but ended up going up the hill of death, mainly to explore that end of the park, in case people want to run there.

My legs felt light and happy the entire time, even up the hill. Even though I wasn't necessarily trying to run steady, it turned out that way. The first spike is up the hill of death, and the following hill. The really big spike is down the slippery root invested cross-wise slope. 70 minutes or so all together.

I was quoted on CBC today. They were asking people what we thought of "Liberalberta" as a slogan. Here's the exchange.

"Tell us how you really feel, Keith" Jenny said. Even professional radio announcers were having trouble pronouncing it. You try saying it out loud a few times and see how well you make out.

It's a shame the Alberta party packed it in, but I suppose you can only go over the top so many times. Pity the Liberals haven't figured that out yet. The last time they were in power in Alberta was 1921. There cannot be many people now alive who once voted them into office. What with Alberta conservatism in general, and the carry-over of the toxic federal Liberal brand, to say nothing of losing 24 straight elections, it's no wonder the Liberals are struggling.

Much as the Liberals piss me off, about the best that can be said of the Alberta Liberals is that they mean well, but are losers. A brand new party amalgamated from two fringe groups ran to the right of the governing Conservatives, and nearly won. They might have won had not two of their fruitier fruit loops spouted off about homosexuals burning in a lake of fire, or having an advantage because he was white. There is some scary shit buried in that party.

The problem is that the Conservatives are old and tired, governing almost out of force of habit. A million kilos of meat needs to be recalled, and it isn't a problem for them. They still have a spending problem, and can't seem able to get it under control while they have the pitiful, feeble remnants of the Heritage Fund to raid. The medical expense scam is a disgrace, and they've been sweeping that back under the carpet as fast as they could wield the brooms. Supposedly the no pay committee had paid it back, but we later heard that all Conservative MLA's were strong-armed into chipping in. Frankly, they deserve to be swept into the dustbin of history, but who to replace them?

For a complete change in topic, it looks like Edmonton City council told the Katz group to get lost. They've been shilly-shallying about a deal for a new arena since forever, and with any luck, the deal is dead. These billionaires have to be put in their place. Which reminds me of another set of billionaires that need to be put in their place, the NHL owners. They've put forward another proposal that sounds fair on the front, but evidently when you look into the details it's not quite as fair as it looks. There's another group that can go pound sand. I'd be just as happy if they never come to an agreement, but I suppose that would mean constant newscasts about the state of negotiations. That's what the off button is for, I guess.